Archive for September, 2008
28
How To Have A Week-Long Darwin Week To Your Children
Published by admin, under Evolution. 4 Comments.
This article released yesterday on the Humanist Network News. If you are looking to celebrate Charles Darwin’s world-changing theories with your children, you can see how my family has done it by clicking here.
I have some ideas of activities I hope to add this year. I’ll be sure to post them to the blog. If you have some ideas to share, please leave a comment!
Also, HNN’s editor had asked for my thoughts on the Ashley story. If you’re interested in that controversy and would like to see how I apply my ethics, you can read my Letter To The Editor here.
26
35 Outrageous Fees And How To Avoid Them
Published by admin, under General Advice. No Comments.
Anyone who’s accumulated any amount of money in their lifetime will likely tell you that you can’t make money by spending it all the time, and likely lives well beneath their means. One of the ways to save money (and who doesn’t like to save money?) is to avoid ridiculous fees and charges that corporate America likes to shove down our throats, and a gallery at CNN identifies 35 of these fees and shows you how to avoid them.
23
Insurance For Visitors To the US
Published by admin, under Road Trip. No Comments.
Today visitor’s medical insurance has become one of the most common types of insurances as more and more people are traveling to foreign countries. The increase in number of times a person travels today, can be accredited to the growth of tourism industry and facilities. Today people consider tourism as an idyllic way of spending their holidays. However there are several other reasons as well for traveling.
Some people travel because they like seeing different places around the world, while there are some who travel for visiting their relatives or friends staying in other countries. Moreover business activities also involve traveling. All this has made insurance companies look at visitor’s medical insurance, as a significant product having a great market appeal. Millions of visitors visit USA each year. An insurance scheme is becoming more and more popular among US visitors as, it gives them financial security for unforeseen incidents during their visit.
Travelers can reduce the financial risks which they will have to bear because of accidents or medical emergencies by purchasing visitor’s insurance. USA, no doubt has the best health care industry in the world. However to take benefits of this best health care industry, is quiet improbable for a visitor due to high costs.
Visitors health insurance to USA may take care of any expenditure that is medical in nature. Visitors and migrs cannot apply for local health insurance plans and hence, it is necessary that they purchase a visitors insurance. The legal standing of the visitor’s visa is maintained by insurance. The visitor medical insurance provides instantaneous remedial and financial help in case of emergencies.
However, the premium that is payable in lieu of the American visitors health insurance is more expensive than the insurance obtainable in the native country. Despite that, one should buy it in America while visiting the country. This is because the doctors and the hospitals in the USA will be disinclined towards accepting foreign insurance cards and would prefer the American insurance company card.
The visitors travel insurance is not only meant for emergency medical conditions but also can change without warning and the visitor would be in need of coverage that can acclimatize to those changes. The visitor insurance also provides the option of cancellation or extending of the policy coverage as needed. The other incidents may also include delay of departure, loss of luggage, cancellation of flights, loss of passport, damage to personal belongings, loss of personal goods, loss of important documents, losing money and so on.
Such incidents are unexpected and can be faced by any one. A lone traveler is not in a position to deal with the adverse situations on prompt basis. He will require extensive financial help in case he/she were to face any kind of these situations. Thus, he would need a reliable source that would provide him/her timely with financial help. These visitors insurance is designed to deal with unwanted situations and yet to see it that a traveler faces smooth journey. Some of the insurance companies also provide extensive help in case of legal hassles. Some of the insurance companies are extending their schemes that will include acts like terrorism and wars due to volatile political upswings prevalent in many countries.
Post from: Affordable Travel
Insurance For Visitors To the US
21
economy hawaii hawaiian tourism travel wedding
Published by admin, under Vacation. No Comments.
Plan a Wedding or Honeymoon. But the history of Hawaii goes back centuries … much of Hawaii’s economy overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom in a peaceful, …
20
Basic Facts for Visitors Health Insurance
Published by admin, under Road Trip. No Comments.
Visitors medical insurance is gaining wide popularity in recent times. The frequency of travel as well as the travelers is increasing. This in turn increases the number of possible deaths that might occur due to sudden illnesses or accidents during the international travel. Nowadays more and more people are traveling abroad.
Different people may have different reasons for traveling overseas. Some people may travel due to official work; some may just want to indulge into sight seeing. The travel risks are increasing day by day. Possibilities of accidents even wars or terror attacks cannot be avoided. As a result, visitors as an effective way of assuring their safety while in a new country are fast accepting visitor insurance.
Visitor’s medical insurance is similar to the ordinary insurance policy. You have to pay the premium which depends upon the insurance plan you choose. The insurance company will combine the premium taken from you, with the premium collected from others, and in this way it will form a pool of money.
This money is then used to pay for any travel or medical expenses that are incurred by any one of the contributors while on a trip to foreign land. Such travel insurance is also referred to as overseas visitors insurance and is extended to cover accidents, delay of departure, medical expenses, loss of passport, loss of belongings and so on.
Visitor health insurance can also be purchased for a person who may not be physically present at the time of purchase. You an also purchase insurance policy for any of your family members in his/her absence. Visitors insurance policy should be purchased from a company that is native to the land where you are going to travel. For example, if you are visiting Canada, it will be wise to purchase a policy from Canadian insurance company.
The reason for doing so is that in such a case, your insurance claims in that concerned country will be more easily accepted. For example, if you need to take a medical treatment in a particular country, you may need to make claims from an insurance company in that country.
In such a situation the clinic or hospital where you take the treatment can contact the local center of that company and so the dues can be settled easily. Generally hospitals or clinics refuse to acknowledge insurance claims of a foreign company not having a local center.
The sort of a visitors health insurance you may need depends upon many things like the frequency of travel, the risk posed during such a travel, the country that will be visited, any prevailing medical condition that you may be suffering from etc. Before you make any final decision regarding a purchase, it is wise to inquire about the repute of the insurance company.
The ideal time to draw such a visitors insurance policy is when the traveler has all the important documents in his or her hand. These documents may include the visa, passport, the airline tickets etc. If you are traveling to any of the countries identified as ‘high risk countries’, a visitors medical insurance is an absolute must for you.
Post from: Affordable Travel
Basic Facts for Visitors Health Insurance
19
Hotel owners - what language should you speak…?
Published by admin, under Not too serious. No Comments.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a facility, even one very much with tongue-in-cheek, for hotel owners to rate their guests individually just as the guests are able to rate hotels?
I think it would be wonderful. What categories could we use:
* attitude
* in-room cleanliness (taking in those who cannot work out what a toilet flush is for - or a waste bin for that matter)
* behaviour/table manners in dining room
* friendliness/consideration towards other guests
“Yes”, I can hear you say, wouldn’t it be fun…
That last point though is what I particularly would like to be able to rate some guests on - and I have to admit I would be brutal in this regard. How some guests treat other guests can be quite surprising - especially when the some guests are natives of the country the hotel is in and the other guests are those dreaded foreigners.
Take France for example. We are noticing an increasing number of French guests who seem quite affronted when they encounter fellow guests who do not speak French - and naturally - because those other guests are not French! in fact they are even going to the trouble of registering complaints about it…
I accept that the French basically do not travel that widely outside of France, if at all, so some of them are not used to people of other nationalities. They arrive at a little hotel somewhere in their beloved France and of course expect to greeted in their own language - which they are, maybe not absolutely fluently - but their language all the same. But what puzzles me is why on earth they object to their hosts greeting other guests in the language those other guests speak…?
Why should the host rattle off a barrage of French to a Spanish couple when the host can speak fluent Spanish and thus communicate more politely and amiably with them…? why would the hosts deliberately make communication with their American guests impossible by speaking in French to them when both they, and you, are native English speakers…?
The one thing we love about this job is clearly obvious during breakfast times when all our guests are eating in the dining room; a variety of nationalities - Italian, English, Dutch, German, Spanish and even Slovakian - and all chatting away between themselves in their own native tongues, a nice mix of cultures and languages. And in the middle of them all sits a French couple offended that they are doing so…
Certainly when we go on holiday we chat in english between ourselves and have some fun attempting the local lingo with the ‘natives’. But - and I wish that some French would learn this - it is just not practical, nor at all necessary, to expect your guests to be anything other than who they are. It is where they come from that makes them so interesting.
18
Trip to Peru: excellent airlines, good airports, amazing food and service
Published by admin, under Startups. No Comments.
I have just returned from a two-week trip to Peru. I trekked for several days to Macchu Picchu along the Salkantay trail, reaching altitudes of over 4000 meters. Although my feeble attempt at pretending to be a mountain goat collapsed around 3800 meters, I made it without blisters or injuries. I even managed to avoid altitude sickness. Then I went to Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world, to marvel at the man-made floating islands.
It was my first time in Latin America and I am truly amazed not only with the developments in infrastructure, but with the quality of the food and service. My conclusion: not only are “Third World” countries like Peru closing the gap in many areas with developed countries, they are surpassing them.
The flights: new planes, professional flight attendants, new airports
I flew TACA, the Salvadoran airline, from San Francisco to Lima with a stopover in San Salvador. Within Peru, I flew LAN from Lima to Cusco to Puno and back to Lima. TACA and LAN have newer planes, unlike US and European airlines’ ancient McDonnell Douglas leftovers that seem held together by duct tape. The TACA and LAN flight attendants are courteous and helpful (what an amazing thing), they even assist passengers in getting their luggage into the bins above the seats. San Salvador airport is new and civilized: no screaming security personnel barking orders (”take off your shoes! take off your belt!”). Best of all, it has free Wi-Fi. Come to think of it, the airport was so quiet because there were no obnoxious TV screens blasting CNN’s vacuous and irritating “news” programs. Lima and Cusco airports are the same. They are new, have courteous security personnel who actually say “por favor”, and no loud TV screens. Now think of airports like Newark and LAX which are decrepit and sad, where the infrastructure has not been updated since bell bottoms were in fashion (although bell bottoms are in again). From now on, I’m flying TACA and LAN to Latin America.
Lima and Cusco restaurants and cafes: excellent food and wonderful service
I can’t even describe how good Peruvian food is. I love seafood so Lima is paradise — the sushi and ceviche were fantastic. Yes, I went to the best restaurants in Lima and Cusco, but the food is on par with the best in San Francisco. The service? Much better than most restaurants I’ve been to in San Francisco and Amsterdam. The staff do not rush you, as they do in US restaurants, where “brisk” service is a means to generate more revenue, but they are attentive. As for the juices, everything was fresh — they make juice straight from the fruit, none of that packaged frozen sugary junk served in the US and Europe. The coffee was also excellent and they served it in real porcelain cups. Thank heavens Starbucks (and the paper cup mentality) has not made it (yet) to Cusco and Lima.
Clean streets
I was impressed with the cleanliness of streets in Lima and Cusco. Even in Puno, which is poor and unappealing, the streets were clean. By contrast, walk in San Francisco’s Financial District and SOMA and marvel at the amounts of trash lying around even during the middle of the day.
Cellular service even at Macchu Picchu
One of the more unpleasant aspects of Peru’s obsession with getting cell phone coverage everywhere is that while you’re gazing down at the Inca ruins, an obnoxious guy walks right by you screaming into his cell phone, “Guess where I am? I’m at Macchu Picchu!” Yes, there was cell phone coverage at Lake Titicaca, too.
American car makers have lost Latin America to Japan
I asked a taxi driver, which car brands are the most popular in Peru? He said: Toyota and Nissan. The US car makers sell giant objects that drink petrol, very impractical indeed. It looks as if the US execs’ pump-and-dump mentality, their obsession with the next quarter’s earnings, coupled with a lack of understanding about how the rest of the world works, just handed an entire continent over to Japanese car makers.
What’s with the Cuba obsession?
So, after two weeks in Peru, I arrive at SF Airport in the middle of the night. The only thing the customs agent wanted to know was if I bought anything from Cuba. Excuse me, what was that again? No queries about whether I had brought back illegal substances, body parts of endangered species or strange live birds. All he wanted to know was whether I was sneaking in something from that evil little island. Of course, I had nothing from Cuba, but it was such an odd question given that there are many other worse things to bring back from other countries.
Peru still needs improvement, but it’s making dramatic changes
The road from Cusco to Puno needs a lot of work. It’s paved half of the way, then degenerates into a rough, pot-holed strewn thoroughfare. The way people drive is insane (but attentive, unlike the perpetually distracted SF Bay Area driver yakking on a mobile phone), the pollution is horrible in Lima, and a lot of Peruvians are very still poor. But, I could see that people are seriously upgrading their infrastructure, improving their businesses, paying a lot of attention to providing good service, etc. A lot of small kids speak English, there are Internet cafes everywhere, people show up on time and are reliable.
The gap is closing
It’s true that Peru and other Third World countries have a long way to go to reach the level of countries like the Netherlands and the US. However, they are closing the gaps in many areas.
I was surprised to read this NY Times column by Thomas Friedman, where he expresses the same sentiments:
I couldn’t help but reflect on how China and America have spent the last seven years: China has been preparing for the Olympics; we’ve been preparing for Al Qaeda. They’ve been building better stadiums, subways, airports, roads and parks. And we’ve been building better metal detectors, armored Humvees and pilotless drones. The difference is starting to show. Just compare arriving at La Guardia’s dumpy terminal in New York City and driving through the crumbling infrastructure into Manhattan with arriving at Shanghai’s sleek airport and taking the 220-mile-per-hour magnetic levitation train, which uses electromagnetic propulsion instead of steel wheels and tracks, to get to town in a blink. Then ask yourself: Who is living in the third world country?
- - - - - -
If you want to know my favorite restaurants and cafes in Cusco, go to:
Mapplr’s favorite restaurants and cafes in Cusco
17
Cleveland Restaurants
Published by admin, under Guide Information Provide Travel. No Comments.
Cleveland Restaurants
By Steve Valentino
Do you love to eat? Well, come to Cleveland with a big appetite, then. With more than 1,000 stylish, restaurants, bistros and microbreweries to choose from in Greater Cleveland, you will never get hungry. Read on for a guide on Cleveland restaurants so that you can sample the latest food trends or flavorful ethnic cuisine that Cleveland has to offer.
First-class dining
Cleveland s own Ristorante Giovanni s, The Baricelli Inn, The Leopard Restaurant, Lockkeepers, and the Century at The Ritz-Carlton should be in your list if you are looking for award-winning cuisine. These Cleveland restaurants are all winners of the AAA Four Diamond Award. Expect to spend about $30 and up for a meal in these restaurants - not a bad deal of you really want first-rate cuisine experience.
Casual dining
Enjoy the charming dcor and contemporary cuisine of casual dining restaurants in Cleveland. Choose from American to Asian to Middle Eastern menus, or combine them all and go for fusion food. Expect to spend about $15 to $30 on lunch and dinner full meals.
Cheap Thrills
In Cleveland, good food never has to be expensive. For under $15, you can have great dishes of any kind - Mongolian, Japanese, Italian, and good old American. Most of them offer full breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus, and some have breakfast and fruit buffets and soup and salad bars. There are also a lot of in-restaurant bakeries for bread lovers.
Indianapolis Directory
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Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Indianapolis
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Jacksonville Trivia - How Much do You Know?
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Jamaican Restaurants
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Cambridgeshire Restaurants
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Come with a group for more fun.
Taste of Cleveland
Cleveland holds a yearly Taste of Cleveland during Labor Day weekends - so if you happen to be in the area, go to this event! It s usually held at the Tower City Amphitheater. Some 50 Cleveland area restaurants display their latest cuisine for everyone to try.
Cleveland provides detailed information on Cleveland, Cleveland Hotels, Cleveland Golf, Cleveland Restaurants and more. Cleveland is affiliated with Indianapolis Hotels.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Valentino
http://EzineArticles.com/?Cleveland-Restaurants&id=222226
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16
Road trip pictures are up for Days 1-6
Published by admin, under Road Trip. No Comments.
Road Trip Pictures
I know everyone has been wondering what excitement we have been up to and now I have pictures posted for all to see, and they are even up to the current day. Go here to see them.
I’ll write more about the trip when I’m up in Michigan, for now I’m off to bed!
-Zach
13
Mt Drum, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.
Published by admin, under Alaska. No Comments.
Hey Folks,
Here’s the follow up to the post of 2 days ago. I walked about 100 yards up the ridge from the pond, and found this Alaska Cotton Grass field, which made a nice foreground for the mountain, to me. The timber of the light had changed so much in just a minute or 2. I snapped a few photos here, and before I knew it, the peak started to dim. A cloud behind me blocked the rising sun’s rays, and within a few more minutes, the peak no longer glowed. Bummer. I lay on the tundra for a while, hoping for some more light, but by the time the light started to shine on the snow-capped Mt. Drum again, the warmth was gone, and a cold morning light wasn’t so great for photos - this tired cold puppy headed back to his tent for some rest.
I should be back from my Bremner - Tebay trip tomorrow, and will try to post something late tomorrow evening when I get in.
Here’s another image of this same scene:
Cheers
Carl